Cbeck out the new Capital Culinarian - seems to be the best new pro-style range on the market. I know some people are happy with Viking but too many reports of poor reliability. Consider DCS, Wolf or Bluestar before Viking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Capital Culinarian

Culinarian 30" is $3500
Self-clean,rotisserie,and easy glide racks add $1500

Painted oven door and toekick add $350

If you have to order soon,need 30" range for about $5200 or less it is a no brainer.

The Culinarian might not work for the OP if time is a factor. It's not supposed to be released until Sept 2010 and on this forum we have yet to see a single new release of any appliance that did not end up getting pushed back on the actual delivery date. The Culinarian is a fabulous stove, but apparently the OP is trying to keep her range under $3K, so she'd have to switch to a different model or vendor.

The Electrolux certainly has the looks, but whether it performs as well (compared to other closed burner ranges; the Culinarian is an open burner design), might be hard to get an opinion on. I'm not sure I've seen anyone post who says they have this particular model.

You could consider Electrolux the Whirlpool of Europe. Like Whirlpool, they make some good appliances and some run-of-the-mill performers. And like Whirlpool, they can be sometimes difficult to deal with on repair or install problems.

I'm only familiar with E's Frigidaire line of gas stoves. I found them very good performers, BUT the electronic circuit boards get easily fried by the steam/heat and it is an expensive repair. This has also proven true on the Whirlpool/Kenmore which replaced the Frigidaire/Kenmore - on the WP I have replaced the board twice and the latest board is already acting up again after two years.

These boards cost $375+ to replace so doing this every couple of years is not kind to the pocketbook. This is one of the great advantages of the pro-style mfgs like Capital and Bluestar, or the foreign mfgs like Lacanche - no electronics to go wonky.

YMMV. Good luck with whatever you choose!

Have you considered NXR? I have had my 30" all gas NXR range in use for about a month and am very happy with it.

It features 4 16.5K btu closed burners, an infrared broiler, heavy duty grates. Very pro-looking and I felt the best value for my budget.

I ordered it through Josh Dvorson at marinrestaurantsupply.com and was very happy with the service and pricing that I have received from them. I paid $1999 with free shipping. I had them also convert it to lp gas use before shipping it.

If it is in your price-range, it would be worth checking out. I ordered mine sight-unseen after shopping/reading reviews for several months.

I am considering purchasing a capital 6 burner with griddle all gas with the sealed burners, rotisserie and self clean. I am also considering the capital culinarian. Here is our dilemma. Our retailer has the first one (sealed burners) for sale for an incredible price for the floor model. The culinarian would be just over 2000.00 more. Is it truly worth just for the open burners when everything else is the same? Also, griddle only, no option for grill? Please help! Needing to make my decision soon!

just an fyi - since i started this thread and it revived itself after a very long time: i bought a bluestar rnb 30" all gas range. should be delivered in 3 weeks.

ebean, just wondering how are you enjoying your new bluestar? hope you are happy with your choice.

hi lamermaid. we've had our bluestar 30" rnb for about 1 month now...not all of which time has allowed me to use it (hookup; painting, etc.) but i am loving it. someone described it as a 'box of fire' and that's just right. it has very few bells and whistles and is super powerful. my only issue is learning where to set the big front burners for stuff like omelettes...i went too high and ended up with an outside too well done and an inside underdone. but these things will work themselves out.

the bluestar whiteglove was great...i had a 2 knob issue (installed oddly) and i got in touch with bs and they shipped new knobs to the whiteglove service who popped them onto my range.

Offtopic to ebean:
What kind of vent hood is that, and do you like it?

(your setup looks great, by the way)

thanks. it's a kobe hood (suggested by someone on this forum.) it was budget-friendly and seems to work well.

http://www.ventingdirect.com/kobe-ch9130sqb-30-wall-mounted-under-cabinet-range-hood-from-the-ch-191-series-with-up-to-720-cfm-and-recirculating-option/p416971

Do not be too disappointd you are not getting the Viking. I am very unhappy with mine. Mostly because the black porcelain top is pitted and discolored. My cook top is only 8 mo old and looks terrible. I called Viking and all they said was use the blue sponge no other suggestion. Sent a picture and still no response. Also the high BTU does not boil water any faster then my old Jenn air cook top. The simmer is just O.K. difficult to adjust.

I, too, am considedering the 30" Bluestar. I was told that only one burner has simmering capability. Is that true?

We bought a capital 30", 5-burner... It came with a defective oven thermostat, right out of the box. They brought us a new one (the dealer, not capital or online). W had about a week of low-intensity cooking and one of the igniters died. We called, they came, they ordered the part. Before the part came, another igniter died. They came again, ordered another part. Wait for it--the next day, a 3rd igniter started clicking randomly while the burner was on, enough to drive you crazy. What to do? Try a 3rd one...???

Answering kharamarie's question about simmer --- on a 30 RNB there is one "simmer burner" at 8K BTU, one at 15 and two at 22. You can pay extra and configure the stove to have two 8K burners if you want. But all the burners turn way down and hold very steady. That's one of the nicest features of the Blue Star burners. Also, on all the burners you can rotate the grate circle to raise the pan higher off the flame.

We looked at everything and ended up buying the NXR and have been very happy with everything about it. We have had it for going on 8 months, with the ignitor for the infrared unit broken on arrival. Called service, within one week was replaced and up and running. The convection works well, and the infrared is worth it's weight in gold, we love that feature. I'm 100% sure that for the money there is no way you could come close to this range.

We did the same and went with NXR.
Researched for about a year, looked at everything but in our price range (wanted to keep it under $2000)the NXR was really the only choice.

As far as burners go the NXR burners go from 600btu tiny double stack center to a full 15,000btu and all 4 are the same so I can have 4 ultra low simmer burners or 4 15,000 btu burners or anything in between and fit 4 large pots/pans on the range top at once.
It has been easy to clean, great oven and racks, excellent infrared broiler.
For less than 1/2 the price of most any other stove.

Are there stoves just as good, maybe even a bit better than the NXR?
Most definitely, but for under $2000 absolutely nothing even comes close.

I mean really, how can you go wrong with a double stack burner that goes from this (15,000btu)

Down to this a tiny little 1.75" burner with only 600btu and so low that the flame actually hides under the rim of the burner, you can actually melt chocolate on a paper plate with it. Anyone needs lower than that and you may as well just rub your hands together and heat the pot with your hand.

Another happy NXR customer here...we've had ours for a couple of months and the freedom of having all the burners do everything I want is wonderful! I also love that there are no electronics to melt or malfunction. It's a great workhorse of a range and looks pretty good too.